Otherworldly

Be My Mannequin has a set of poses inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas out at Enchantment’s Burton-esque round. A strange choice for this summery scene, one might think, especially as I picked the pose with the snowflake prop. But I love the incongruity of this combination and the reminder that no season—or anything else—lasts forever. As usual the fatpack (called Weary King) of all three poses is event-exclusive and offers a 10% discount. Also available at Enchantment is the Helena hair by F&M Oblivion, a large and quirky updo very well suited to the theme. Here I went for a light colour and a more whimsical feel.

The lovely butterfly swarm is by deviousMind and available at We Love Role-Play in a range of colours. These can be worn with most bodies and include an optional particle effect of additional butterflies. I matched it with the butterfly and bee decorated April bikini by deviousMind.

Cheval D’or has a gorgeous, circus-inspired harness out as a limited set for Valentine’s. I picked it up for the Pegasus and colour-coordinated it to my outfit via the HUD which offers both some preset textures and the ability to tint on top of these. The set also comes with two types of reins, static ones and a set for using with a cart.

Speaking of my outfit, that is another NextUp release from deviousMind, the GoodFortune set which has a bit of an Asian-inspired feel to it (though perhaps not so apparent with the pieces I am using). I am finding that this type of gacha-replacement works pretty well, though admittedly deviousMind has always had very fair sets where its easy to get useable items without needing every piece. For example, the SilkBlouse and Panties are in the same set and are perfectly wearable without anything else.

My hair is Wasabi’s latest release, out now at Anthem. The Pink hair is unrigged (and thus resizeable) and includes an optional hair clip. The skin is Selene in Milk from Poema’s Rahra-line which I really like on the Zora head from LeLutka.

Both of my poses are from Be My Mannequin; I have blogged these particular poses before but they suited the scene very well. The horses are using poses from Mythril.

Snow is still on my mind and while it likely will disappear in a few days, it is still snowing outside my window tonight. So, I made it snow in SL as well, using the Shimmering Snow from Dysfunctionality as the final touch on this scene. It started with the “It Pours” pose from Be my Mannequin, part of a set of dynamic poses for The Grid event. I placed it in front of the dramatic Ice Portal from RatzCatz, another item from the SL Christmas Expo and left myself staring up at the thick snowfall. The very cute and Christmassy outfit is Dancer from deviousMind, available in the new NextUp “gacha” format.

A litte Thursday quickie using a couple of things from the Fifty Linden Friday’s birthday event and this week’s Dark Wednesday release from Be My Mannequin? I used the Dutchie mid century mirror closet for the photo, which is made so that you can turn your camera around to look out through the glass and get a kind of mirror effect. This pose is one of a set of four close-up poses, meant to be shot from the waist up. The turn of the torso and the look over the shoulder really helps sell the mirror idea.

The style from Wasabi offers two different options for the bangs and a left side or right side braid. The dress from Blueberry comes in four patterns and tons of colour options for the lace and the ties. It also includes fits for a large range of bodies, including Slink Physique Original.

Inspired by the Roman Strategy Table from Del-ka Aedilis, I created this scene of a Roman noblewoman seeing the plans laid out by her husband and then praying to their ancestors, perhaps on the eve before he goes into battle. All the decor pieces as well as the house itself are from Del-ka Aedilis Civitas series, which does a wonderful job of capturing various aspects of Roman life. Note that I did size down the house as well as the decor for this photo since my avatar is small by SL standards.

My hairstyle from F&M Oblivion is not Roman, but I thought it could pass well enough for a the style of a Roman matron, at least during some periods. And the robe from the Dreaming Thicket is more Greek than Roman, but one makes do with what one has!

If you ask me, the best female mesh body in Second Life is still Slink Physique Original. I do have an use Maitreya Lara and Legacy as well, it is virtually impossible to blog without at least one of those, but for a natural, realistic look Physique Original can’t be beat. The hip and thigh area, in particular, drives me crazy on the other bodies.

But like I said, I have had to cave in and start using them for blogging. Still, I am always thrilled when a new release that supports Slink Physique Original shows up! The Iris dress from Faida is one such release and this time Titania Halasy gave herself quite a task, modelling the dress for 12 bodies/body variants. And since it is for the Itty Bitty Titty Committée, there’s a version for Slink Physique Original with the Petite Chest Augment and that is precisely what I am wearing here.

Given the upcoming ban on gachas, I decided to revisit another deviousMind gacha for this post; Chandra Meehan’s gachas will definitely be sorely missed as they have always been designed so that ever item is perfectly useable on its own. For this post, however, I am showing off the full Sylvari set, complete with the rares such as the headdress and the petal skirt.

The pose, which comes with the glowing orb, is another Be My Mannequin? creation. It has a very mystical feel, which is why I went full on fantasy with the look and the surroundings.

Is there such a thing? Well, that seems to have been what I ended up with at least, mixing the Trompe Loeil Isadora Rustic Cottage with Barley’s Scandinavia Bench. Either way, it turned out to be a moody, intimate setting for showing off a selection of new releases from Voluptas Virtualis för K-Pop United, together with a new hair from Exile for Collabor88.